green silk shot with gold and lined with flesh satin and tulle; bordered with a band of gold braid, cream silk chiffon and pearls, sequins and beads; nine hand-painted angels set in a circle of velvet with beads and gold ruche

Melba wore this cloak for her role as Elsa, in Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. Following her first appearance as Elsa at the Metropolitan Opera Company, the critic for the New York Tribune remarked: ‘the magnificence of her wardrobe was without a parallel as far as the local stage is concerned’. (quoted in Gray, 2004) Melba always wore her own costumes, not those belonging to the theatre as had been the standard practice.